SIBERIA (16/03/2007 - 27/03/2007)

Hello!
We reached Ulan Ude (cross-roads to get the far eastern Russia or the south, Mongolia) last Saturday. Just today we went to the Mongolian Consulate to apply for the Visas, and we will obtain them in the afternoon. A further 2 Euros allow our car temporary entrance.
We run for 2500 km since we left Novosibirsk. To leave the biggest city in Siberia was pretty hard.
It’s incredible that in the biggest flat area in the world they don’t make any ring-road and you have to cross the whole city from an end to the other if you have just to pass through.
Along the road the territory changed. Anymore flat, but hills and taiga, the Russian forest.
Because of the cold the policemen are quiet, they don’t stop us, preferring to stay into their heaten gages.
The springtime announced itself with a snowfall (sign of the hotter weather) causing some problems on the roads, especially to those truck-drivers preferring to take a run-up on the uphill instead to put on the chains.
Along the road I (Claudio) had flashes of memory. I was here in the 2001 and even if this time is snowing, I remember some hills, or villages, because when you see Siberia, it remains behind your eyes.
We drove most of the time with the 4WD on. On a uphill we met a queue of big trucks unable to move on that high snow.
There was a small lateral road just affordable with an off-road vehicle. A 4WD Subaru was slipping, and we try to go on. People started to laugh seeing our small Suzuki going on with such bullying. We pull up that big Subaru. In Siberia you can’t leave someone in troubles. Once on the top of the hill, people already knew that there was two Italians with a super off-road.
In the evening we stopped in a Café and because of the weather the electricity had a black-out. We gave some candle to the lady, allowing her and us to eat.
In the morning we arrived at the lake Baikal. Glaced. Wonderful. We saw a little truck driving on the surface, and it made us sure to be able to do the same with our small car.
We followed it, but at 100 metres about from the shore the truck rapidly did an U turn because the ice was breaking. We did the same, we run on to the shore without watch behind us.
We spent another day to arrive to Ulan Ude. Along the road we saw a lot of Japanese cars, more than Russian cars. When I (Claudio) was here some years ago the most common car was the Lada Jiguli, copy of the old Fiat 124, I did not imagine a so big modernization of the car park.
Since we started from home we intended to sell somewhere our car (soon or later we will start to pedal) but today we aren’t anymore sure to make it possible.

Claudio & Patrizia